Discovery Toxins leached into pesticide:
Semeru spews hot clouds:
Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java, spewed hot clouds as far away as 4.5 kilometers (nearly 3 miles) on Saturday.
There were no immediate evacuations, but the National Disaster Mitigation Agency warned people who live in the villages on the slopes of the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot)-high mountain to be vigilant in looking for signs of danger.
Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati said that people around the river basin on the slopes of the mountain should beware of high rainfall intensity that can trigger lava floods.
Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center did not raise Semeru’s alert status, which already had been at the third-highest level since it began erupting in May. The volcano spewed hot ash for 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) in early December, triggering panic among villagers.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 250 million people, sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Government seismologists monitor more than 120 active volcanoes. Indonesia’s president is Joko Widodo. (AP)
Toxins leached from packaging into a pesticide commonly used on mosquitoes, the Environmental Protection Agency has found, but the risks to human health are unclear.
Testing by the EPA found the pesticide, Anvil 10+10, contains perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, The Boston Globe reported.
The EPA determined that fluorinated “containers that are used to store and transport a mosquito control pesticide product contain PFAS compounds that are leaching into the pesticide product.”
The St Charles, Illinois, company that manufactures the pesticide, Clarke, said that its tests had not found the chemicals in its products but that it has stopped the sale and shipment of the pesticide in plastic containers, the newspaper reported.
“The potential for PFAS chemistry from the fluorinated packaging to leach into finished goods was unknown to Clarke,” the company said in a statement to the newspaper.
Massachusetts has sprayed the pesticide from planes and using trucks to
reduce the risk of people contracting diseases from mosquitoes, according to the state agency for infectious diseases. The
EPA has not released the levels of PFAS it found in the pesticide and says on its website that it is still evaluating whether
there are public health risks. (AP)
Nepali team first to top K2:
A team of Nepalese climbers on Saturday made history by scaling the world’s second highest peak - Pakistan’s K2 - in the winter season, a local Alpine Club official said.
The secretary of Pakistan’s Alpine Club, Karrar Haideri, said 10 Nepali Sherpas reached the summit around 5 pm.
At 8,611 meters (28,251 feet), K2 is the most prominent peak on the Pakistani side of the Himalayan range, and the world’s second tallest after Mount Everest. Winter winds on K2 can blow at more than 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) and temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).
“This was never done by anyone before in winter,” said Haideri.
He added that four international climbing teams had arrived about a month ago to try scaling K2 - the last peak above 8,000 meters in the world to not be climbed in the winter. Of these dozens of climbers, the group of 10 Nepalis have so far been the only successful team, said Haideri.
Since the maiden attempt back in 1988, just a handful of winter expeditions have been attempted on the storied 8,611-meter peak in the Karakoram range along the Chinese border that leads into the Himalayas. (AP)